How to Find Your Next Hidden Steam Gem in Seconds

Hey everyone, it's Adrian again.

SecludedGems helps you find well-reviewed Steam games you'll actually enjoy, without all the hopping between Steam, YouTube, ProtonDB, and SteamDB just to vet a single title. I put this guide together to walk you through how it works, and how I'd use it to get the most out of it.

Step 1: Make your Steam profile public

Before you start, your Steam profile needs to be public so SecludedGems can see the games you own. To set this up:

1. Open Steam and go to Edit Profile.
2. Select Privacy Settings.
3. Set Game details to Public.

It only takes a moment. Please note that if your profile is private, SecludedGems has no way to read your library, so the search won't return anything.

On privacy, because I'd want to know too: it doesn't keep your library. SecludedGems reads the games you own, your hours, and your wishlist to work out your taste, then uses that to find your picks. There's no account and nothing to delete, and the full detail is on the privacy page. It's also completely free.

Step 2: Find my gems, or Surprise me

Once your profile link is in, you've got two ways to search:

• Find my gems gives you focused recommendations that closely match what you already play. I'd use this when you want safe, on-target suggestions.
• Surprise me casts a wider net and surfaces less obvious picks you might not have thought to search for. If the first set isn't quite right, hit Surprise again for a fresh batch.

I won't get into exactly how it matches games to your taste (I'd like to keep that part to myself). The short version: it actually reads your library instead of guessing, and it leans toward well-reviewed games that tend to get overlooked, rather than the titles everyone already knows.

Step 3: Tell me what you're in the mood for (optional)

If you've got something specific in mind, use the craving box to describe it in your own words. For example: "Dark Souls but with guns," or "cozy games like Stardew, no horror, nothing endless." SecludedGems will weight your recommendations toward whatever you type.

You can refine in a couple of other ways too:

• Select More like this on any game to pivot your list toward similar titles.
• Use the filters to narrow things down, like showing only games that are currently on sale, or hiding genres you'd rather avoid.

Feel free to adjust and search again as often as you like until the picks feel right.

Rediscover games you already own

I didn't want this to only be about new releases, so it also highlights:

• Games already in your library that you've barely played, in case one's worth a proper second look.
• Titles on your wishlist, so you'll know when one is worth revisiting or has gone on sale.

Everything you need on a single card

This is the part I care about most, because it's the whole reason I built the thing. Each pick is designed to save you the back-and-forth across different sites. On every one, you'll find:

• A trailer and screenshots, viewable without leaving the page.
• A short summary of what the game is, and what players say it's like.
• How many players actually finish it, when that data's available.
• An honest note on any drawback, because I'd rather just tell you what you're getting into.
• The price in your local currency, including any active discount.
• Steam Deck compatibility, plus quick links to SteamDB and ProtonDB if you'd like to dig deeper.

In other words, I've tried to do the research for you.

Finding a gift for a friend

You can use SecludedGems to find a gift, too. Paste a friend's public profile instead of your own, and SecludedGems will suggest games suited to their taste. Honestly, it's a handy way for both me and you to pick something for someone when you know they're into games but have no clue what they'd actually want.

Getting started

That's everything you need. Paste your profile, pick Find my gems or Surprise me, and refine from there.

SecludedGems is a personal project and I'm always tinkering with it, so if you run into a problem or there's a feature you'd like to see, please let me know. You're welcome to try it any time at secludedgems.com.

Thanks for reading,
Adrian